Dynamite Fashion Show

Ever year the Forest Institute Financial Aid Office hosts a fashion show to promote their "No Default" program. This program is essentially to teach people how to pay off their school loans efficiently and more importantly entirely. This fashion show is very unique simply because of the spending limit models can use to purchase their attire. What the Financial Aid Office does is give each volunteer model $25 for which to purchase their entire runway attire, and that is the limit. They also throw in the proper motivation to buy the nicest stuff you can find for such a limited amount of money by offering prizes for different categories.

When I heard about it back when I was first interviewing for the school I knew this was right up my alley. I don't know too many other guys that love to shop at thrift stores as much as I do....well with the exception of my favorite movie character Napoleon Dynamite. So to honor my favorite character I got my $25 and headed to Goodwill, Disabled American Vets, and the Salvation Army thrift stores to buy some threads to make me look like the man without a plan.

I found a 3-piece suit, clip-on tie, brown leather shoes, and glasses for less than my limit. I was in business. We were allowed to supply our own accessories so the additional wig and numb-chucks topped off my presentation. I edited a track from the ND soundtrack for my runway song, it was the suit-walk, it work perfectly! I put on the best show I could as did my best not too embarrass my sweetheart who was watching from the audience, but I think I failed in that effort.

My runway performance included me quickly pulling my clip-on off and throwing it in the crowd, swing around a pair of numb-chucks, and pulling out some tater tots from my pocket and eating them. It was so fun but to be honest I couldn't see a thing the entire time. The glasses were actually +3 reading glasses which made everything blurry beyond recognition. Fun times indeed!

In the end I was awarded the honor of having the most complete outfit, 'HECK YES I DID'. Better than that however Kristy ended up winning the big door prize which was a very nice over-night suit case on rollers. We had some seriously sweet luck!

St Patricks Day with Green Eggs and Ham

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than with Green Eggs and Green Ham. That was not all however, we also had green cookies, green juice and a green shamrock cake. The girls had a blast as we filled our bellies full of green things and then put up our St. Patrick's Day decorations. A great way to spend an FHE on this very green day.

WSU Raiders Go to the Big Show

We were so happy to learn of Wright States big turn around this year with their basketball team. Kristy and attended so many games to watch our Raiders receive beating after beating. Wouldn't you know it though the very year we leave they get a new coach and go all the way to the NCAA championship.

I remember when they would give each student 2 free tickets for each home game. Even with the free tickets never once had I seen even half the arena filled. This year was much different, a winning season results in a filled arena, plain and simple.

They did so awesome this year making it all the way to the big show as the 14th seed. Unfortunately they didn't make it past the first round of the NCAA championship but at least they were there, it was the second time in the long history of the program. So all the same we send a BIG CONGRATS out to our Raiders.

photos obtained from the Dayton Daily News

Petra Rock Climbing Gym and the Speleo Box

So Travis and I must have thought that we needed a way to feel young again or something, but whatever the reason in the end we felt older than ever. We went to the local rock climbing gym called Petra and took our initial belaying class to qualify to be able to climb at the gym. The class was very easy going and took about 40 minutes. We learned a couple of vital climbing knots and the essentials of climbing and belaying. Before we knew it we were climbing the wall.

These knots are called the figure 8 and the figure 8 follow-through, both are very essential to not falling which was the one thing that was most important to us.

So the climbing was great, very exhilarating, very satisfying, but very challenging. Travis and I made multiple climbs through the night.

An unexpected thing that was also at the gym was something called a speleo box. This is a climbers labyrinth. It was not very tall, maybe 7-8 feet and about 11-12 feet wide. Yet it had 4 levels and so many nook's and cranny's. It was not so much a maze as it was a challenge to climb through and get through all the obstacles. Travis and I went through this thing multiple times and let me tell you this thing is so fun! My best time was 2 minutes and 32 seconds and I was flying through that box.

It was a tight fit no matter how you approached this thing, if a person had even a hint of claustrophobia this would certainly send them right over the edge.

Climbing was fun but this thing, this thing was just way awesome!

Travis and I were sure not feeling to young by the time we were done crawling around in this thing.

Good times with my good friend Travis, some rope, and a big box labyrinth.

Check out Petra at http://www.petrarockgym.com/

The Rootbeer Brothers Form and the Brew Begins to Flow

A very good friend of mine from back in the Navy, Jeff Hertz, and I have undergone a project that has been many years in the making, sort of anyway. Him and I have been swapping soda from around the country for years. So the other day I decided to start back up this old tradition of ours and bought a mailing tube with the thought that we would exchange a bottle of root beer every so often. As I was preparing to do this the thought came to my mind that we could really carry this further than just simple indulgence of a smooth cold draft brew. You see he has been blogging for about a year now, which is listed in my links list (check it out, he has an awesome family) which makes him very familiar with blogging in general. So with all that in mind I presented an idea to him, start up a website that is primarily based on our adventures with root beer. I registered our domain and Jeff made the logo and before long we were up and running. So if you like root beer check it out. http://www.rootbeerbrothers.com/

One of our goals is to evaluate and rank as many root beers as we can. Our first root beer was Sprecher and after I was done with my evaluation I asked Neleha what she thought. She agreed with me, Sprecher was better than A&W. Check out the website to read not only my evaluation but also Jeff's. Hope to see you at Rootbbeer Brothers.